


smile like the sun

by clytemnestras



Series: Fem Feb 2020 [2]
Category: Freaks and Geeks
Genre: F/F, Femslash February, Femslash February 2020, Post-Canon, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:14:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22883851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clytemnestras/pseuds/clytemnestras
Summary: The Grateful Dead Tour
Relationships: Kim Kelly/Lindsay Weir
Series: Fem Feb 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636480
Comments: 5
Kudos: 17





	smile like the sun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElasticElla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/gifts).



> For Ella, who wanted road trips, music and shotgunning
> 
> Title is an earnest use of a sarcastic line from Barracuda by Heart

By the third stop of the  _ Dead _ tour the nervy cocktail of guilt and dread in Lindsay's stomach has finally been smothered by the cheap beer. Kim's head is cradled in Lindsay's lap in the van humming and swaying softly to the support band. They're no good, not really, and if the boys were here they'd have something with more bite to say, Nick about their sloppy rhythms, Daniel about the lack of  _ goddamn charisma,  _ Ken about how actually, this is about right for openers to  _ The Grateful Snore. _ But Lindsay figures that any song that gets Kim like this, calm and loose and unguarded has a certain power to it. They've hung with the guys from the band a couple times now, Kim winding the singer's hair around her knuckles and laughing wildly at his mediocre rock-'n'-roll stories, so maybe she's just nursing a crush. Lindsay's just relieved she never hit it off with the drummer, marking any prior evidence down as a symptom of kind eyes and small town-smothering. 

Kim's fingers wind through Lindsay's and drum their knuckles against the floor of the van. "I fuckin' love this song." She tilts her head up to look at Lindsay, grin splitting open her features, and Lindsay grins back.

"Yeah," she says, "yeah, it's a good one."

*

She starts noticing it slowly, the gradual softening of Kim's features. Back home, the hard line between her eyebrows seemed a permanent mark but here on the road the tension drains from her body every inch they travel away from highschool and home, and Lindsay is perpetually surprised by how easily she finds herself welcomed into the open space. 

The first time Kim hugged her it was a harsh thing, a thump on the back of her ribcage that actually pushed the breath out of Lindsay's body. Now, rocked by meandering bass solos and the sweet buzz of borrowed tequila it feels natural to fill the space between Kim's curves with her own body, dancing hip to hip, music rolling between them like thunder. This is familiar, too, abstractly, the way Kim would pull her up in band practise and press their bodies close, watching Daniel over Lindsay's head for a flare in his nostrils, a tick in his jaw. Now, though, Kim's eyes are screwed shut, no performance, no seeking reaction. Her body  _ is _ the reaction.

Lindsay feels so warm, from her, from the music, from the residual heat sunken over the valley. If she could carve a moment open and burrow inside it, this would be where she'd hibernate. So  _ this _ is what she'd missed all those years being laced up and housebound and hungry for perfection. Girl-warmth and shared quiet and untrackable rhythm.

She feels young and wild and not hungry at all.

"Kim," she brushes her nose against the girl's ear. "Are you happy?"

She opens her eyes, dazed, sleepy. "Linds," she rubs their noses together. "I've never been happier."

"I've never…" Lindsay squeezes her hands on Kim's biceps. "I think you're my best friend, Kim."

Kim laughs and pinches Lindsay's waist. "I fuckin' better be." She presses their mouths together for one soft, quick moment then leans back, eyes closed.

They dance until dawn crawls across the sky.

*

Lindsay knows, logically, of course this is less safe than it had been before, in the relative wilderness of wherever-town California, with whatever shit Kim scored from the latest tag-team support band picked up on this leg. Nick's stuff was low-grade but low-risk. This could be laced with anything.

But there's something about the way Kim is howling out the words to  _ Barracuda,  _ how Laurie and Victor share hits between their mouths as often as their hands, how there are so many more stars above her than she could ever count.

Kim calls for her and Lindsay crawls over, folding into Kim's side like she belongs there. "Wanna try it?" She steals the blunt from between Laurie's fingers as she breathes into Victor's mouth.

"Yeah," Lindsay hears herself say. "Yeah, let's do it."

Kim grins at her, like she's proud of the delinquent she has carved out of Lindsay's good girl facade. "Come here," she says, pulling her even closer. Kim inhales slowly, more carefully than usual, then cups her free hand around Lindsay's cheek. Their mouths meet, and Lindsay has felt this delicate warmth before, somehow stranger now than when it was without purpose. She opens her mouth as Kim gently exhales, her tongue brushing against Lindsay's lower lip. Lindsay breathes her in.  _ Oh.  _

She burns inside, lowly, like a glow filtering from her lungs into the bloodstream. Kim pulls back and quirks her lip, and Lindsay reels her back in for another kiss, nothing between them now but oxygen. Her hands cup Kim's cheek, her neck, pulling the other girl flush against her, until they spread out and fit like she knows they do. She can hear herself, the small sounds of want, of contentment, the way even this kiss pressed between them is a smile, and okay.

Okay.

"Yeah?" Kim asks against Lindsay's mouth.

She nods, twining her fingers through Kim's hair. "Yeah."

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr! [@bohemicns](http://www.bohemicns.tumblr.com), let's chat!


End file.
